Mass Effect: Side Story Chapter 2
by Soldier167
Summary: Read as the young sergeant makes himself a new friend.


**CHAPTER 2****  
****Unlikely Encounter****  
**  
Derek Sykes awoke from his chaotic experience. His head was still in awful pain and the left side of his armor stained black from the blast of his own grenade. "Am I dead?" wondered Derek believing for a split second that he's a ghost in the afterlife. He realized quickly that his head hurts immensely and that he was very much alive. He recalled before the blast, that he saw lieutenant Walkers clinging himself to the floor and fell down with him when the secure bulkhead dropped. He stood up slowly trying to shake away the pain and the disorientation. He saw the bodies of fellow squad members on the ground and Batarian pirates too, at least what's left of the two former squads blasting away at each other before the window shattered, but when he checked there was no sign of lieutenant Walkers anywhere, his body was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't be sucked out into space because Derek clearly remembers him still being here after the bulkhead fell.

Derek picked up an Avenger rifle from the back of a dead fellow squad mate. He checked his pistol, it was still there but it was badly damaged in the blast. He replaced it with another from another dead squad mate on the ground.

He took a good look around and he saw the carcass of Michaels with his back to a wall and his shoulder to another. Derek marched over and kneeled down, "Michaels" said Derek to himself dropping his head in sadness, disappointed that the fate of the private was one so grim.

He walked into the bridge cautiously, still trying to shake off the pain previously sustained. Everything seemed to calm down a lot now, only the red lights were still blinking and the computer with a low voice is still sounding off about system failures in the ship. Derek took a deep breath, relieved that he at least got through one chaotic time on this ship. He calmed himself and thought rationally, what to do next. Then he recalled Will's voice on the coms just before everything went dark.

"I gotta find Will" Derek said to himself. He was thinking carefully, on how to achieve this goal, Will could be anywhere now, perhaps floating out in space as well. He could be dead or captured by any other Batarians still on this ship, the possibilities are endless, but Derek was determined to find his friend that stuck up for him all these years. He remembers when his parents moved to Hong Kong for their designer jobs for the Hahn-Kedar company. He was bullied in school the first few days and Will came along, knocked down the bullies in front of Derek and saved Derek from embarrassment. Since that day, Derek and Will where practically brothers. They watched each other's backs everyday of their childhood lives, Will defended Derek from the mean kids and Derek helped Will with his school work. Their parents even moved together to an expanding colony in Alliance space right after they graduated from primary school.

"I need to find Will, I have to find him" Derek thought to himself, determined that he will not loose his friend. That gave him a goal for now and some degree of confidence. He walked to the scanner controls on the bridge and scanned to see if the Berlin was still beside them. There was nothing, the Berlin has clearly departed assuming that the mission was a failure.

It didn't matter to Derek, he was just focused on finding his friend and perhaps even the lieutenant. At this point he didn't feel any pressure on his shoulders, he knows what he needs to do and he was determined to do it. Even though the thought of it made him nervous and scared he knows that even just to stay alive he is pulling his friend out with him.

Derek turned around and saw another exit, on the other side of the bridge he saw a door clearly damaged from the fight that jaguar had with the enemy. It won't be able to open let alone function without repairs. So he ventured though the open exit. Derek ventured through another dark corridor making sure that any Batarians that tried to ambush him will have a few bullets from his rifle. He checked his rifle and made sure that it had shredder rounds to better his chances. As he pasted the secured corridor without an ambush he entered another area of the ship. He looked around trying to piece together where he was and soon realized that he was in a detention area, since there were prison cells in the room.

It looks like that all the cells were empty and that there were no prisoners on this ship. Derek thought to himself that he wouldn't be surprised, since he heard that Batarian pirates had a reputation of taking no prisoners. However when Derek looked to the other side of the room, he noticed a prison cell with its energy barrier still on. He cautiously made his way up to the prison cell.

There inside the cell he saw a figure that was obviously not human, he ventured closer to the cell and concentrated on making out who or what was inside the cell. And soon he saw a turian sitting on the floor. The turian stared back at him with no expression on his face or at least Derek couldn't tell if the turian was showing any at all.

"Are you here to bust me outta here?" asked the turian. "That depends, I don't know", replied Derek calmly but cautiously.

"If you are then make it quick will ya, I have score to settle with these sons o' bitches." spoke the turian.

"You're not very friendly are you" commented Derek. "I'm not here to make friends human, I'm here to make the Batarians here, kiss their own asses before they drop dead", answered the turian "so are you getting me out or what? If not quit disturbing me from my nap".

"Okay" said Derek with a huff disliking the turian for his attitude, "how do I do that? I'm no tech expert". The turian looked to Derek and answered with a hint of pride "lucky for you, I am, I just can't reach where I must go to free myself". The turian stood up on his feet and shook himself clear of laziness then walked up to the barrier.

"Use your omni-tool to scan the lock controls next to this barrier and use the decription systems to cripple the lock" instructed the turian. "okay," said Derek awkwardly, unclear on what he was doing but trying to perform what the turian asked him to do.

"Then use your electronics system to dig away the lock initiating system" instructed the turian once again. He then looked to Derek and commented " hmm, you seem quick to trust me". "Look who's talking" replied Derek, "who says I'm not locking you in here for life" teased Derek while struggling with the lock, with the aid of his omni-tool.

"Oh I doubt that very much human" replied the turian with a smirk in his voice. The two looked at each other for a moment and they both laughed mildly. The barrier of the cell flickered for a bit before it powered down with the sound of a few zaps and an energy shutdown. The turian stood tall in front of Derek, ready to take the fight to any Batarian pirate left on this ship.

"So then, turian, who are you?" enquired Derek. "Sergeant Arthus Caprakis, 2nd Turian Shocktroops, and the baddest son of a gun you'll ever meet" replied the turian.

"I know, you're big even for a turian" answered Derek in return with a tone of amazement.

Arthus made his way to the opposite cell, "where the hell are you going now?" asked Derek. And soon he saw that there were crates inside the cell. Arthus pulled open the cover from one of them and pulled out a Revernant machine gun and a Eviscerator. "Arming myself with these babies, the Batarians thought that just because I was in a cell means that they can just dump my own weapons right next to me".

When Arthus was done arming himself, he walked to Derek and asked "so I told you who I was, now your turn". Derek seeing that he would need a friend to help him on his goal to find Will and possibly Walkers, answered "sergeant Derek Sykes, Alliance 8th marines here to disable this ship".

"Aha, and by disable you mean, blow up right?" asked Arthus, "pretty much!" answered Derek casually, "but first I need to find my friend and my CO".

"Find them? Okay listen here Derek, I heard the firefight when you blazed in here with your squad so take it from me, your friend is most probably dead and your CO is probably dead too. Let's just find the leader of this joint and smash his face into his cabin walls", said Arthus desperately in his low voice.

"No!" shouted Derek suddenly going angry, " Will is practically my brother and I am not leaving him behind, the CO has been great to me when I first entered to his command and so you can also scratch that idea of leaving him behind too!". Derek took out his rifle from his back unfolding it simultaneously, "now we need each other to get the hell outta here, but if you're not gonna help out, then I guess you can find your own way outta here".

Arthus with a understanding expression on his face, nodded his head " alright human, you win we'll go find your friends" then suddenly his voice turned from casual to a quiet deadly tone filled to the brim with anger,"but when we find the captain...he's mine". His eyes filled with anger as if it was turning blood red, ready to snap who ever who's in charge of this ship in half. Right then and there, Derek can feel the fear that Arthus is emmiting, striking his heart and spine, thinking that whoever the sad sap that's in charge of this pirate ship is in for some serious whooping.


End file.
